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Mom's budget

March 26th, 2006 at 04:23 pm

Ok, I'm finally going to step in and put my mother on a budget - and teach her to use it too! She's been trying on her own, but she's not looking at things right and it's not working for her. I went to visit her last weekend and started asking her all sorts of financial questions. I was HORRIFIED to find that 1) she is paying 20% interest on her car loan for the next 15 months and 2) she hasn't paid her property taxes since 2001 ! As of her February statement, she had a balance of $548.00 @ 12% and $1561.16 @ 18%. *SIGH* I had no idea this was going on and I know my brother must not have known about it either. Before he left home, he was making decent money and could have paid this off. My mother's way of thinking about bills is: if you ignore it, it will go away, right?

Well I'm still working on some numbers. I know what her definite bills are each month: rent, car insurance, electric, phone/internet, prescriptions, bank overdraft payments (balance of $387.00). Other household expenses include groceries, gas, church donations. I left out the car and property taxes because I'm working on a plan for a low interest rate to get these paid off. Ideally, I'd like to see this paid off in 2 years. Once I have a clearer picture of what's going on, that may have to stretch out to 2 1/2 years - at the most! I'm very happy about this plan, and I think she will be too.

She seems to be on board with this plan. Everything I have asked her to do so far she has done. She decided that she didn't need to make automatic payroll deductions for savings bonds. I showed her the cost comparison with her prescriptions - she can save just under 1/3 per month if she does the mail order pharmacy. I had her call Verizon and switch from the 29.95 to the 14.95 per month dsl plan. If my suspicions are correct, she wont even notice a speed difference.

Making progress!!

3 Responses to “Mom's budget”

  1. veronak Says:
    1143387419

    Good luck, I hope everything works out

  2. Thrifty Ray Says:
    1143390577

    Thank goodness your mom has you. And kudo's to you for taking care of her. I do this for my parents and boy, do they need the help.

    I worked at a credit union for many years and fraud was one of my departments...boy, so many elderly people are taken advantage of by 'caregivers'. So, I am always happy to hear about those who have grown sons and daughters who will unselfishly step in.

  3. contrary1 Says:
    1143393940

    I'm getting closer to this time in my life, where I will be responsible for moms affairs too. Fortunately for me, she has been an expert with her finances so things aren't out of sorts. She has been sharing her "business" with me for the last couple years, preparing me for the eventual hand off of matters.
    Another season of life.............

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